Car still won’t start after installing new battery

If you bought an Optima 12v battery, that's the problem... They sell junk batteries...

 

Do you have a multi meter? Check the resting voltage at the jump points under the hood after turning the car off and letting it sit for an hour or so. Do ignore Priuscampers non advice. He has some weird hatred of Optima battery’s for some reason. Optima battery’s and HID headlights.

 

A 12V battery producing 6v is so beyond dead, that it doesn't "just happen". That's a significant drain for considerable time or a very very very long time of it not being driven.

You put in your own new 12v battery? Make sure you got the terminals correct and make sure you got the right battery. There was a case just last month where a stupid auto-shop gave a customer a 6v golf cart battery for their Prius, meaning it was supposed to be 6v which will never work in a 12v vehicle.

By "wouldn't start one day" is that, it was being driven every day and then just one day it died? Or is it "I left it alone as I traveled the world for 5 years and when I came back it wouldn't start"? Both can happen, both very different. Similarly did you leave a light on? Do you make sure to lock the car when you leave it (makes sure no door is ajar so no door dome light would illuminate)?

More details needed.

 

There are lots of things that drain the battery besides the lights if the doors aren't fully shut. It is a good habit to lock them, because it will immediately complain if a door is ajar. Sometimes, you can't tell at all. Sometimes your plunger in the door wears out and it senses the door open when it is mechanically shut. No way to visibly inspect that, you just need to try to tell the car to lock and it will say it can't because the door is open.

In a Prius there is no way for "everything to turn on except the engine". If the car goes into READY mode, the 12v aux battery is out of the equation. There is no starter, no alternator. The 12v battery flips some relays and the big traction battery spins up the engine with MG1.

There is also zero usefulness in having Autozone "check" the battery. The Prius doesn't crank, so their tests are completely meaningless.

 

When you first noticed the car was dead did you try jump starting it?

Also the "top portion of the screen" is the dashboard assy its called the Combo meter here. Very very common for it to fail seeing lots of those right now. Members here sell the rebuilt board.

Use the search forum button up top and search

combo meter

lots of info on there. I just replaced mine the part cost $100 for a rebuilt circuit board.

As far as the car dead here's the smartest thing you can do. Buy a Toyota OBD II tester. It works with a laptop and will harvest all the trouble codes the car is logging with all the lights on the dash. It will tell you exactly what its unhappy about. Go on amazon and buy a VXDIAG Powered by Toyota techstream $66. I have one it works great.

It has the proprietary software same as the dealer uses. Its a must if you own a 12 year old prius.
Without those codes we are all just guessing.

 

what hybrid battery did you replace the original with?

 

Ouch.

Check out the reviews for the Duralast Platinum at 2.7 stars = Duralast Platinum Battery 34-AGM
Duralast Platinum Battery 46B24R-AGM

Then, the OPTIMA Yellow Top at 4.9 stars = Optima Battery 46B24R

 

what did you replace the big battery with earlier this year?

 

I ask if it was jumped because that's the main reason you get blown fuses messing around with the 12 volt battery. many people on this site have blown there Prius up reverse polarity jumping the car as they attached or attempted to attach the battery jumper leads directly to the battery in the trunk instead of the jump lead under the hood.

 

Where was the charge at to begin with?